A new study offers hope for a relatively simple mechanism to promote bee health and well-being – give them access to sunflowers.

The study by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows two different species of bees fed a diet of sunflower pollen had dramatically lower rates of infection by specific pathogens.

Bumble bees on the sunflower diet also had generally better colony health than bees fed on diets of other flower pollens.

These pathogens have been implicated in slowing bee colony growth rates and increasing bee death.

The study also showed a deleterious effect, however, as honey bees on the sunflower diet had mortality rates roughly equivalent to honey bees not fed a pollen diet and four times higher than honey bees fed buckwheat pollen.

Annually, some two million acres in the United States and 10 million acres in Europe are devoted to sunflowers, he said, making sunflower pollen a ready and relevant bee food.

“We’ve tried other monofloral pollens, or pollens coming from one flower, but we seem to have hit the jackpot with sunflower pollen,” said Rebecca Irwin, a professor of applied ecology at NC State. “None of the others we’ve studied have had this consistent positive effect on bumble bee health.”

Irwin said sunflower pollen is low in protein and some amino acids, so it should not be considered as a standalone meal for bee populations.

“But sunflower could be a good addition to a diverse wildflower population for bees,” she said, “especially generalists like bumble bees and honey bees.”

The NC State researchers are planning to follow up on the study to examine whether other species of bees show the positive effects of sunflower pollen and to gauge the mechanism behind the mostly positive effects of sunflower pollen.

“We don’t know if sunflower pollen is helping the host bees fight off pathogens or if sunflower pollen does something to the pathogens,” Irwin said.